In the past, whenever her husband came home, her mother-in-law would surely egg him on to beat her. But today—had the sun risen from the west? Her mother-in-law was actually persuading her husband to hit her and their daughter less.
Could it be that the story about her father-in-law appearing in a dream was real?
True or not, her husband finally calmed down, and only then did Jiang Lian’s tightly wound heart settle.
“And another thing,” Ye Wen continued with a stern face, “Lian-niang is in postpartum confinement and needs to expel lochia. The menstrual pads she changes—remember to wash them when you come back from work!”
As soon as those words came out, the other two people in the room flushed bright red.
The eldest son was both embarrassed and furious. He jumped to his feet and moved to hit Jiang Lian. “Lazy woman! You don’t even wash your own filthy things? And you dare let Mother tell me to wash that kind of filth!”
“Eldest!” Ye Wen’s anger flared. She had just finished telling him to treat his wife better, and in the blink of an eye he acted as if it went in one ear and out the other. She grabbed a broom and swung it at him. “You treat everything I say like farting, don’t you?!”
The broom whooshed fiercely as she swung it. The eldest son was beaten into running circles around the room, completely forgetting about Jiang Lian. Only when Ye Wen was tired did she stop.
The six-foot man now curled up by the bed, ashamed and aggrieved. Seeing that his mother had finally stopped, he timidly said, “Mother, stop hitting me. I know I was wrong…”
Where was the ferocity from earlier?
“But you’re making me wash…” he stammered, his face burning red. “That kind of thing… if word gets out, how am I supposed to face people?”
“What kind of thing?!” Ye Wen scolded with her hands on her hips. “Without women bleeding, where would you men come from? If you want your wife to keep bearing sons, you have to take good care of her! If she ends up with postpartum illness, who are you going to find to give birth for you?”
“If you don’t wash them, are you expecting me to serve her?” she snapped, raising her brows.
“That’s not what I meant…” How would he dare let his mother serve his wife? It was already a blessing if she scolded them a little less.
“Then what do you mean?” Ye Wen pressed sharply. “Do you only feel satisfied if you exhaust Lian-niang until she can’t bear sons?”
The eldest son shrank his neck and didn’t dare make a sound. What Mother said made sense—if Lian-niang’s health collapsed and the main household had no son, how would he ever face the ancestors?
“I… then I’ll wash them at night, after everyone’s asleep…” he muttered.
Ye Wen knew when to stop. In this feudal era, getting a man to go this far was already not easy. After all, even in modern times, menstrual shame hasn’t completely disappeared.
“And you,” Ye Wen turned to glare at Jiang Lian on the bed, whose face was flushed, her voice suddenly rising, “since I said he’ll wash them, you’d better obey me honestly! If I find out you secretly washed them…” She narrowed her eyes and said each word slowly, “I’ll skin you alive!”
Jiang Lian shuddered violently, her heart pounding. How did her mother-in-law guess she planned to secretly wash them herself? But letting a man wash such intimate things—how embarrassing…
“That’s settled!” Ye Wen declared decisively, turning around and leaving.
After handling matters in the eldest household, Ye Wen strode to the west wing. The candle inside had long been extinguished, but she knew the second son and his wife definitely weren’t asleep.
The eldest household had caused such a commotion earlier that even Wen Xiangnan, who lived in the side room, had come out wrapped in clothes to watch. With Tian Chunhua’s love of seeing Jiang Lian humiliated, how could she possibly not come out? She was clearly feeling guilty, afraid of being caught and lectured!
Bang, bang! Ye Wen raised her hand and knocked heavily on the window frame.
“Second daughter-in-law, I’ll let bygones be bygones for the past. But from now on, if anyone in this house dares stir up trouble…” She paused, her voice as cold as ice. “Don’t blame me for turning ruthless!”
She had finally seen it clearly—if this family was falling apart, Tian Chunhua bore the main responsibility. As long as she stopped making trouble, at least half the household harmony could be restored.
After delivering her harsh warning, Ye Wen turned and headed straight back to the main room, throwing herself heavily onto the bed.
Inside the west wing, only after there was no more movement outside did Tian Chunhua poke her head out from under the quilt and whisper, “Husband, do you think what Mother said about Father appearing in a dream… is it real?”
The second son rolled over and pondered. “Most likely it’s real. You know Mother’s temper—if Father hadn’t shown himself, would she have let Big Sister-in-law off so easily?”
Tian Chunhua also felt her husband was right. She knew very well how her mother-in-law usually treated daughters-in-law. If not for the fact that she had borne a precious grandson, her days wouldn’t have been much better than her sister-in-law’s. So she believed that her mother-in-law had listened to her father-in-law’s ghost and decided to turn over a new leaf.
“Oh right, where’s today’s money?” Tian Chunhua nudged her husband with her elbow.
Wen Xiangxi relit the oil lamp, bent down, and dragged a clay jar out from under the bed, placing it on the bed’s edge. Tian Chunhua quickly lifted the quilt to make space, and the couple began counting money under the dim yellow light.
Counting money every night was the happiest moment for the couple.
“One, two, three…” The copper coins clinked crisply. When they finished counting, Tian Chunhua widened her eyes. “Two hundred and twenty wen? Why so much today?”
“The little young master at Steward Wang’s house just turned one month old and has a big appetite. Two wet nurses weren’t enough,” the second son said smugly, rubbing his fingers. “They urgently needed crucian carp to make soup to boost milk production, so they paid generously.”
The bits of silver in the jar gleamed faintly under the lamp. Since starting this small business, the second household had secretly saved up eight taels. Touching the silver, Tian Chunhua suddenly thought of something. “Husband, Mother fell pretty hard today—her head was swollen quite badly. Should we ask a doctor to take a look?”
It wasn’t that she was truly filial. She was calculating that as long as the old lady lived, the family wouldn’t split. If the family didn’t split, the communal household would cover everyone’s daily expenses, and the silver her husband earned could all go straight into her own pocket.
If the household split, how could there still be such good things? Not to mention anything else—just daily expenses alone would have to be deducted from income, and the amount of money they could save would be greatly reduced.
Besides, if the third son really passed the imperial exam and became a licentiate, they could even be exempt from taxes. Having the old lady alive was far more beneficial than harmful to their second household—they absolutely couldn’t let anything happen to her.
“What could happen to her?” the second son said dismissively, curling his lip. “When she scolds people, she’s full of energy. I know her temperament best—if she really had any headache or illness, she’d have already made the whole family miserable.”
Even if something really did happen, it should be borne by the eldest and the third sons. One was the eldest, the other the apple of the old lady’s eye. No matter what, it wouldn’t be his turn to worry.
“As for Big Sister-in-law’s side, tomorrow you can find a piece of fine cotton cloth from the chest and send it over. After all, she just gave birth…”
“Pah!” Tian Chunhua’s expression immediately changed. She grabbed her husband’s ear and twisted it hard. “Giving birth to a money-losing good-for-nothing deserves fine cotton cloth? Don’t tell me you’ve taken a fancy to that fox spirit—” She hated Jiang Lian’s good looks the most and had never stopped making trouble for her.
“Nonsense!” the second son shook off her hand. “Big Brother and his wife are the type who’ll work like oxen and horses for just a bit of sweetness. Don’t we still rely on them so we can slack off? You women are so short-sighted!”
After being scolded by her husband like that, Tian Chunhua felt a bit embarrassed and awkwardly changed the subject. “Mother said she wants to go work in the fields. Then what are you going to do in the mornings…”
She knew very well what her man was busy with outside every day. If her mother-in-law really insisted on going to the fields, her husband’s little business would either have to stop or he’d have to come clean to his mother.
For a moment, neither of them spoke, each lost in thought.
Coming clean was absolutely impossible. If Mother found out, she’d definitely confiscate all their private savings.
She always favored the third son. If the money was handed over, wouldn’t it all end up poured into that bottomless pit of funding the third son’s studies? They didn’t want to end up like the eldest brother—working themselves to exhaustion only to make wedding clothes for others.
Yet the couple selectively forgot that everything they ate and wore came from the eldest brother’s hard-earned labor. In the end, how were they any different from the third son? They were all sucking the blood of the eldest household!
They were even worse. At least the third son didn’t constantly sow discord, while Tian Chunhua stirred up the sister-in-law every few days, turning the eldest household upside down.